Short story written 5 years ago with which me&myself&I had won first prize in the British Council Creative writing competition (topic - "Children's rights").

Please”, I hear myself saying. You know, it’s not that kind of please one likes to say – it’s not something like “Hey, waitress, one bottle of champagne, pleaaaaase” or “Please, be my wife” stuff. It’s that kind of word one hates from the bottom of his heart, it seems like it comes from some second universe, so distant, so absurd, yet those are my lips which are being opened.

“Please” of beggars, “please” od beaten and hated. There are 2 billions of us today – youth full of pain and sorrow, those high-and-so-clever estimate,2 billions of unwanted consequences, 2 billions of unexpected children of your passionate extatic spasms. Oh, unknown father I hope you loved your 4.2 seconds of absolute pleasure, oh, unknown mother I hope you smiled when you threw your child into a trashcan. Well, if I had only one possibility to ever meet you, I would not spit into your face – would good it would make?- I would rather like to say that I do not like the smell of sewers I’m sleeping in, I’m not smiling when I’m waking and I’m not smiling either when I’m sitting here, my hands dry, and asfalt beneath my feet is melting and it huuuuuurts, but I will not move, beggars have to sit still, it’s expected of them to be obedient,calm, humiliated.

Dear parents, either I’m not smiling when I’m closing my eyes in fear, that primitive animal fear of death I feel every night even in my dreams. How I’m afraid of that 10:00 PM time, of that border which lies between life and death which those high-and-so-clever had created for us. After 10:00 PM every sound seems like call of death, every human face seems like the face of killer. Every time I wake up in the night I repeat to myself silently those words of death, words of our dear Confederation Leader, how beautifully they start but what evil is inside. Every night I repeat myself until I fall asleep:

“Life. Life is something beautiful, the second miracle of Mother Nature. Slowly, during millions and millions of years creating higher and higher levels of beauty and intelligence. Creating more and more complex forms and then, creating human and with it the first miracle of Mother Nature – consciousness. Being aware of my own existence, being aware of that I’m being aware,and so on and so on, till infinity, the gift on infinity hidden in our own existence.

Our mission as humans is to protect Life in second place, but in the first place we have to protect consciousness, intelligence, analytical thinking. That’s the highest of complexity levels nature had created till now and we have to take care of it, protect it.

As you all know, on 21st February 2046 population of our planet Earth exceeded 25 billions, and it’s impossible for our planet to bear more people. Terraforming of Mars is slowly becoming possible, but it will take years, years our planet don’t have. Limits are exhausted. The game is almost over.

Last few months our scientists, mainly psychologists, neurologists but also mathematicians and other experts in cognitive science made an anormous effort to understand what is consciousness, who is consicous and who isn’t. They found out that person becomes fully aware of his own existence during puberty, before it one child is more like an animal – lovely, cute, but mainly driven by instincts and desires- and full consciousness emerges around age 15.

We have to protect consciousness, this is the highest goal. We understand that OUR children are OUR future, they will become intelligent and conscious citizens, we will be proud of. But what about those creatures sleeping in the sewers, unwanted, full of hate towards us? Our analysis shows that there are 2 billions of them, they are everywhere around us, like that rat stuff we totally eliminated 10 years ago.

Nature’s main motto is “the best will survive, the others will die”. We feel high respect towards life,but the weak have to make place for strong. These 2 billions aren’t productive, they don’t create values. Without these 2 billions, our population will survive next five critical years till the terraforming of Mars will be completed.Therefore Council today have added new ammendment to Global Constitution: Every mentally retarded person or person which isn’t capable of fully conscious thinking (as defined in §121/2047) found after 10:00 PM without company of family relative which is capable of conscious thinking can be eliminated by cyanide gas or other not painful means by members of police or army.”

10:00 PM. The moment parents lock the door twice and forbid they children to go out . Sometimes these children hear screaming behind the window, and they say to themselves “Thank God I’m here, lying in these pink pillows,counting sheeps.” When evening comes, I take my money, buy water, bread and ham – I know that if I wouldn’t buy ham each day I would have earned 1500 bucks more, but I can’t help myself, I love it – ,and then slowly and very carefully-it’s the matter of life and death I’m getting underground. And there in those dark areas where none of you had ever been is my home. Sometimes in the dark I see some other little body, walking silently, with paranoia all over his mind, like a ghost.

“Please” I say over and over again. Sometimes someone comes, search in his pockets and than throws a coin in front of me. I say “Thank You” and I thank him with all my heart for showing this piece of humanity, for showing sentiment to those who are nowadays not considered as people on this planet.

“Doing!” a sound of coin falling wakes me up from my melancholic thinking. I grab the coin – “Oh, those are 5 bucks!!” I almost scream in happiness. Only 1873 more and I’ll have money for a ticket to Mars. Well it’s a ticket for dogs but who cares, even if I won’t survive, they would throw my corpse outside, into an absolute void of cosmos and there I would float forever – between the stars, which are forbidden for me here, in this hell called planet Earth. And if I would survive- what pleasure, oh Mars, new Frontier of outlaws.

I see massive leather shoes coming in my direction. I know what will probably happen next, it happens from time to time, one can’t do nothing about it. I look up and I’m sure, no hair, dull face, hate in his eyes. Quickly I hide my head into my hands, there’s no time for nothing else. “Runt! Bastard! Because of you, people like ME had to starve! What a pity it’s not evening, I would sit here, holding you, and then around ten I would call police! You know what I mean don’t you, you nothing-more-than-animal?You would die, die, LEGALLY YOU WOULD DIE!” I feel iron tip of his shoe kicking me into stomach, he tries to kick me into face, but it’s well protected.

I hear some other voice and then kicking stops. Everything is calm now, but I lie there with my head protected, I know their tricks quite well and they are too stupid and blind in their hate, hate towards life, to learn something new.

“Your head bleeds, take this” I hear that second voice saying. That voice is too human to be true, I look up and in front of me only type of person which I expected. These long-haired guys looking like Jesus Christ, neo-hippies or how are they called, most of the time drugged by some emphatic chemicals, are the only ones which bring some happiness and almost love into my life,sometimes they even give me some fifty-buck note or colored book.Humanity what happened to you that you need chemicals to love your own children?

I take aromathic handkerchief he gives to me, it smell of flowers, of innocent nature. “What have we done to you? Why are you sitting here on this hot asfalt with bleeding face and fear in eyes, begging for a coin? What a miracle you are with the curly hair of yours, with your own dreams, with your life. Say, what you want and you’ll get it!” hippie says, almost crying, certainly drugged like hell.

“You know what I want? I want to love when there is someone who deserved to be loved. I want to shout, when there is something which deserves to be shouted. I want to eat ham and read colorful books, and most of all I want to dance. I want to dance,freely, under the stars of night.”
And in those childish innocent eyes he saw whole universe.